A joint statement by the more than 250 participants from five continents at the recent World Uranium Symposium in Quebec City, Canada calls for a ban on every phase of the uranium fuel chain; an end to the use of nuclear power; and the elimination of nuclear weapons.  Please sign the declaration at this link where the full declaration can also be found.  

 

The local district court judge for the Kagoshima Prefecture denied a citizen legal challenge to block the restart of the Sendai nuclear power plant in southwestern Japan. Residents and the broader public remain concerned by experts warning of another nuclear catastrophe triggered by any one of several large volcanoes active in the region. More 

 

Serious flaws have now been found in the French prototype EPR reactor still under construction at Flamanville in France (pictured) that could scuttle the project altogether. Flamanville has a faulty steel reactor vessel at risk of splitting, a 100% unacceptable outcome. The cost of replacing it may be prohibitive, although work has not halted at Flamanville site even though further tests are being conducted. This latest in a string of major setbacks for the Areva design could cancel the two EPRs planned for Hinkley in the UK. The Chinese have already halted fuel loading in their EPRs and Finnish authorities want another look at the over budget and behind schedule Olkiluoto EPR there. More

Today there are 44 fewer reactors operating in the world than at the historic maximum in 2002.  But this decline has been on-going and was not "caused" by Fukushima. This was just one of the salient points that Mycle Schneider, lead author and publisher of the World Nuclear Energy Status Report , made during his plenary presentation at the World Uranium Symposium in Quebec City last week. "Fukushima accelerated a pre-existing decline" in nuclear power, Schneider said. The decline includes the collapse of nuclear corporations such as AREVA, a potentially alarming development because, as Schneider pointed out, "a company that is technically bankrupt is operating the world's most dangerous place - La Hague," the French reprocessing and radioactive waste storage site in Normandy, where 500 of the 3,000 plus workforce are to be laid off to reduce costs. More

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